Bhutan 's Gross National Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind that most people typically urge themselves to achieve, to somehow magically land on, what is inexplicable is the dangerous lengths people will sometimes go through in order to make this a reality. Aldous Huxley attempts to explain the so called “steps” that are taken to assure the happiness of a “community” controlled by a totalitarian government and how this government creates a false sense of stability in order to manipulate its citizens’ minds thus creating this Brave New World. The World State lives by the motto, “Community. Identity. Stability.”, this stability being defined as a time in which there is no visible violence, there is a healthy economic stance and the people are… happy. Its aim is “universal

In The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner travels to many different countries in search of one thing: happiness. The book details the writer’s, Eric Weiner’s, journey to multiple countries and his experiences there on his search for happiness. He searches from the unhappiest countries to the happiest countries to find how geography affects the happiness of the people that live there. His search often has interesting clashes between philosophical and scientific viewpoints on happiness.

While taking the “Happiness Quiz,” I found the explanation for answer #2 regarding Denmark being the happiest country to live in quite interesting. From the sounds of it, Denmark has the makings of good attitudes and life balance. The fact that Denmark realizes the toll stress and imbalance takes on our lives and has incorporated things such as fathers also having the ability to take leave with new babies, seems promising. Another portion that peaked my interest was #4 explaining how happy people generally do not have higher incomes or superior intellect than others. The practice of gratitude was addressed in question #12; I came to realize in reading that section, the importance of the act of engaging in gratitude. It is one thing to verbalize

And, of course, stability isn’t nearly so spectacular as instability... Happiness is never grand” (221). The controllers and directors of the World State use happiness as a substitute for all other negative feelings. People prefer positive feelings over negative ones, but happiness loses its true value in the World State. The World State community proceeds as one without individual characteristics, permitting true happiness to never be

The world state tells their citizens that they “are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get,” so World State citizens do not realize what unhappiness is like (Huxley 220). They are created and conditioned to be “happy”

Lisa who lives in Sweden lives a happy lifestyle. She has everything that anyone can ask for. A great job, health care, an education, and a government that invests in her and her people. In a not so great part of the world, Rida who lives in Iraq lives an unhappy lifestyle. Her family of 10 can barely support themselves and cannot afford to send Rida to school. And Health care in her country is one of the worst in the world. Happiness levels in a country differ from one another because of the circumstances they are in. Countries having the same circumstances can differ on happiness levels. If you were to put the U.S. and a country like Netherlands together, they both are sort of the same. Good health care, education, and employment. But in actuality, the Netherlands are a much happier nation than the U.S. In ‘Celebrating Happiness Day With The Happiest (And Saddest) Countries,’ by, Hayley Munguia, shows us where each country ranks based on happiness. The Netherlands are ranked fourth while the U.S. is ranked seventeenth on the chart.

Everyone has something they use to distract them from the unpleasant parts of their own life. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, a few examples of these distractions are soma, alcohol, and, for the main character, John “the Savage,” literature. The society of Brave New World intentionally prioritizes happiness and contentment over truth. Citizens are inconspicuously provided with instantaneous pleasures as placeholders for their freedom and their right to truth. The novel demonstrates that the concepts of happiness and truth are naturally incompatible in certain aspects of life.

One could say with conviction that the way a country regards its inhabitants; more importantly the care of its children, the equality of its women, as well as its interactions among fellow countrymen, is a direct reflection of the overall happiness of that country.

The honorable Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso once said, “When I meet people from different cultures I know that they too want happiness and do not want suffering . . .” That being said, people from different cultures want to be happy. The only thing that differs between cultures is how each distinct culture perceives how happiness can be achieved. Such is true for the conception of happiness between my culture, the American culture, and the Indian culture. While the conception of happiness across my culture and the conception of happiness across Indian culture are both individualistic, the conception of happiness in Indian culture is also collectivist. In addition, both cultural conceptions of happiness have norms that govern their societies in

When evaluating and providing scores, the World Happiness Report takes into account the differences of developed and less develop countries. However, for future reports, a reference to a universal definition of happiness should be included to create an equal understanding. Even though providing a definition will help, perception of happiness will continue to vary based on the different governments and cultures, so that should be taken into account to ensure an accurate comparison of happiness in the countries of the

The Economist’s treatise “Against Happiness”, develops the idea that companies should not utilize happiness as “an instrument of corporate control.” The piece asserts that companies may request politeness from their employees but asking them to feign their respective psychological states’ is inherently wrong. For example, Pret a Manager employs mystery shoppers to determine if its franchises’ workers’ are greeting with a “requisite degree of joy.”

Weiner fears that the GNH is just a marketing trick, but it happens people in Bhutan take it seriously and are looking for a collective happiness. GNP focuses only on the wealth. It does not measure the quality of life. Moreover, cash brings happiness up to a certain point. However, since a very long time, Americans always associate money with happiness. Because of wealth, people lose their long-term vision and won't do things that aren't productive. Unlike Americans, Bhutaneses know when they have enough of a thing and will take time to do useless things. For Weiner, it is a revolution in the way people view the world and manage a country. The author interviews the home minister at a conference named: "Feel GNH" about the efficiency of the GNH. The politician disapproves violence and the fight for resources. He says that happiness is a goal, not a reality in Bhutan.

These methods of understanding well being are meant to cover the depth of the topic, acknowledging issues such as gender inequality, poverty, and environmental sustainability. This information is useful to people in many different fields; ranging from politicians, scientists, activists, and everyday citizens. The importance of measuring well being lies in the fact that this information is vital in revealing a country's strengths and weaknesses. By establishing the areas in which a country can improve, their governments have greater incentive to address these concerns and improve the quality of life for their

The relations amongst happiness, power, and democracy are essentially an ordering of operations to give people what they want. Where happiness prompts the people to act, power gets work done, and democracy makes sure power is not abused. The overall schematic of this operation is a cycle with each political concept administrating the other. In the end, people will choose the option that gives them the highest utility for their personal believes, but it is your task as politician, to progress the entire system of ideas as one unit, in order to get elected.

At first glance, happiness is a state of mind that many, if not all people aspire to achieve in their lifetime. What exactly is that state of mind is up for debate among the east and the west, and varies between different cultures, traditions, and religions. In the west, happiness is mostly associated with success, wealth, fame and power. In the east, happiness can be viewed as freedom from mundane occurrences such as the occupation of western powers from within a country, the end of war, poverty and famine, and liberation of the false self. In contemporary times, and with the arrival of eastern philosophy, religions, and traditions in the west, many are turning inwards and using a tool believed to have more power than an atomic bomb, the human mind. In China, India and various other Asian countries, the mind has long been a powerful tool used to liberate one from suffering, the cyclic cycle of life, as well as a means to reach enlightenment and immortality. However, the mind is only a tool, and not the way per se.